Day 9: The Last Hurrah!

We woke up to the realisation that today was our last full day in the Philippines. It was going to be a tough day...

The teams finished off with final rotations of Construction, Children’s Home and Journey for Hope. Instead of the usual rotations in our three teams, today we had the opportunity of choosing our preferred placement according to our skills. At the Children’s Home and Journey for Hope the teams finished off the T-shirts we had started yesterday before saying our final goodbyes to the children. Many found this difficult as it’s hard to leave those behind that you have grown to love so much. These kids, their faces and this place has been imprinted on our hearts. The team doing construction had the task of painting the boundary fence around the new feeding centre that we have been working on. Sui added painting to the list of things she learnt how to do on this trip, along with learning to shovel and use a hammer properly.

From our rotations, we went to lunch at Bocolod Inasal Chicken, which was great as eating with cutlery was not strictly required. The team had another opportunity to try some local delicacies, the amazing chicken on a stick and the much loved and appreciated Garlic Rice. Everyone bonded over seeing a piece of paper on which Miss Smoker had written approximate exchange prices as a guide and dollar conversion for their soon to come shopping (can you say math nerd?).

From lunch we headed straight into Greenhills markets, which can otherwise be called a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare. First, we went to exchange our Australian money into pesos, receiving about 37 pesos for each dollar. Splitting into smaller groups, we then spread out around the market in the search of cheap rip-off items. Many of us learnt how to bargain with prices we were given initially, searching for the best sale of the day. Variations of shoes, slides, hats and clothes were all bought, all sporting high end brand names that will hopefully last more than two weeks. Short on time the more skilled barters came away from the markets with full hands compared to those who were unable to negotiate a comfortable price. The initial 1.5 hours given to negotiate the busy market came to an end quicker than many expected. We all reconvened at the much-loved Starbucks. We had to fight through a sea of fluoro yellow shirts to get in the doors as our friends from the SCEA trip had the same idea as us.

After packing our loot into the vans we made our way to Journey for Hope. This is where we were to have our last meal together as a team in the Philippines. The rules set up from Ate Myles were simple, we couldn’t eat the main meal until we had tried something from the ‘delicacies’ table. This is where we faced some interesting dietary choices. Did we go for the Balut – a 14 day old duck egg? or the pig intestine skewers? Maybe even the pigs blood or deep fried 1 day old chicks would be our appetizer. Either way we faced our fears, downed some new foods and then were served an incredible traditional Filipino dinner served on banana leaves.

The rest pf the evening was spent doing a combination of talking and dancing with the Journey for Hope crew.  Group of kids we have really come to love. The goodbyes were incredibly difficult as they have all left such an impression on us.

Soon we fly back home to be with our families and friends once more. But, a small part of us will remain here in the Philippines.